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Thursday, April 18, 2013

Weapons-grade plutonium has been shipped from France for use in a MOX reactor in Takahama City, Fukui that is not in service. The fuel will travel past over 70 different countries along the way, many of which have been protesting the transport. There has been no environmental assessment of the impact of the radioactive shipment and countries along the way have not been adequately consulted. (See Green Action statement against the shipment in Japanese)

No demand for plutonium fuel in Japan , no possibility for its use
now, utility admits it is undetermined whether or not the fuel to be
transported will be used ;

Japan continuing to acquire, stockpile and attempt to scale up its
use of weapons-usable plutonium, including efforts to start-up and
operate the Rokkasho reprocessing plant;

A flawed U.S. policy of supporting Japan’s plutonium program which
does not contribute to, but on the contrary distracts from stabilizing
on-going non-proliferation efforts in East Asia;

Japan’s program and its U.S. support undermining on-going U.S.
Republic of Korea (ROK) Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (123)
negotiations, including encouraging ROK to seek reprocessing and
separated plutonium;

The impact of the shipment on exacerbating further tensions on the
Korean Peninsula and in the East Sea/Sea of Japan, particularly in
relation to the nuclear program of the Democratic People’s Republic of
Korea (DPRK); and,

Inadequate transport security plan, including for passage through the Korea Strait.

"Given that the upcoming shipment is being made at the request of
AREVA because it has become tired of storing the fuel in France – and
that KEPCO is reported as being undecided as to whether the MOX fuel
will ever be used – these Barrow ships are doing little more than
playing ‘Pass the Plutonium Parcel’ with a batch of unwanted and
dangerous fuel."

According to NHK world, on Monday French activists held protests against the shipment:

About 50 activists gathered at the northwestern port of Cherbourg on Monday...
The activists wore headbands with the Japanese slogan saying "Stop MOX" and called for a halt to the delivery...
A spokesperson for the activists said France is pressuring Japan by
sending the fuel over when the country is trying to decide on new energy
policies.